Urban Bikeway Design Guide, Third Edition

Over a decade ago, the first edition of the NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide sparked a design revolution in cities. City streets are now understood as key elements in confronting the intertwined safety, equity, and climate crises in North America.

The completely revised and updated third edition of the NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide sets a new standard for street design in North America. Developed for cities, by cities, the new guide is more than a permission slip for better street design—it’s a prescription for safe, connected, equitable bike networks. It captures lessons learned and emerging practices to set a new bar for the design of city streets.

The NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide, Third Edition will help city leaders and street designers meet the needs of our time. New topics address critical gaps in existing guidance for planning and project development. Contextual guidance for bikeway design encompasses the needs of a wider swath of potential riders, across genders, ages, races, ethnicities, incomes, and abilities. The guide offers substantive guidance for safe intersection design, with a focus on conflict reduction. It is a blueprint for implementing safe, connected, and equitable bike networks. Every transportation professional, from design to maintenance and from field staff to executives, needs a copy for their daily work.

Praise for the second edition

NACTO’s Urban Bikeway Design Guide gives American planners and designers the tools they need to make cycling accessible to more people.
—Janette Sadik-Khan, former New York City Transportation Commissioner

This is an extraordinary piece of work that’s long overdue.
—Ray LaHood, former United States Secretary of Transportation

The guide will serve as an essential blueprint for safe, active, multi-modal streets.
—Gabe Klein, former Chicago Transportation Commissioner

A Must-read... Landscape architects, planners, and city officials should find this guide invaluable. Anyone who advocates for increasing bicycle infrastructure in our cities will find many useful tools for implementing best practice infrastructure.
—ASLA’s The Dirt